I have not any prior experience with installing custom ROMs, but after trying it out (and getting stuck, and googling and finding answers) I successfully did it. Below is my home screen if anybody is curious:
I use OpenBoard for my keyboard. Unfortunately I am still dependent on Play Store since some of the apps I need can only be found there. Sometimes it feels meaningless committing to this whole thing because I'm not perfectly private; then I think this is better than using a regular iPhone or Android phone.
So far I'm liking it. I am naturally inclined to feel hesitant about using this as my main phone and plugging in a SIM since it's custom, but I'm slowly making the transition.
Feel free to share any beginners advice or your own experience using GOS for the first time. Cheers!
Aurora store and F-droid will be your besties, you don’t need play store unless you have purchased something.
I suggest Droid-ify over the F-Droid store for ease of use, but both work fine
I personally like the F-droid app way better. It is pretty polished and has the benefit of being first party
The latest f-droid release has been causing me headaches and I've switched (for the time being) to droid-ify. Which also has some headaches but no show stoppers. Of the two, I can definitely say I prefer f-droid. I hope this helps someone find what they want in an app installing app
You don't need Play Store if you've purchased something. I had to use a paid app for a few years and installed it through Aurora. You can install paid apps on Aurora if you log into the google account you bought it on.
Thanks for the heads up.
I like neo store
Automatic updates were added about six months ago. https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/-/issues/719
They've been working well enough for me.
Is it really a massive inconvenience? I would hardly even call it a minor inconvenience. I get a notification maybe twice per week that there are updates pending, and I just accept them in bulk. Your life must be absolutely perfect and ridiculously easy if that simple infrequent action can be classified as a massive inconvenience.
There are much more annoying things when de-googling and using graphene OS than this IMO. This hardly even registers as annoying. Not being able to use my government 2FA app or NFC payments, now that is massive inconvenience.
To me I love to have control over what I update, I agree with it not being inconvenient. For other it might so it's not really necessary to be mean about it!
Unfortunately I'm experiencing the same thing :( Not too big of a deal for me to do manual updates once every two weeks or so but still an annoyance